The online advertising industry is rife with fraud, perhaps because it’s dominated by big tech and perhaps despite it. Either way, ads.txt is one of the more effective measures at limiting the problem. But this study by Sellers.Guide found errors in tens of thousands of ads.txt files, although the report doesn’t indicate what fraction of the total that represents.
The EU has completed passage of its Digital Services Act with final approval by the European Council. The act targets unfair practices by big tech vendors. Contrast that to the big U.S. antitrust bill that’s stalled in the U.S. Senate. (Thanks, Chuck Schumer.) Don’t confuse it with a much smaller bill approved by the House last week.
In somewhat cheerier news, Spiceworks Ziff Davis reports that most companies (51%) plan to increase IT spending next year, even those even more (83%) are worried about a recession. Unfortunately for many marketers, the focus of spending will be infrastructure improvements not marketing. If you want a clearer sense of IT priorities: personalized advertising ranks second-to-last on a list of ten ways organizations plan to use artificial intelligence.
It barely feels like news when industry giants add AI features, since that’s what they’re expected to do. But lots of people use their products, so their announcements are probably of higher interest than most. With that in mind, let’s note that Adobe has just announced general availability of agents for audience creation, journey orchestration, experimentation, journey insights, website optimization and agent support.